Overview

Closely tied to the Jones Graduate School of Business (JGSB) mission of developing principled, innovative thought leaders in global communities
is the school’s commitment to using the knowledge and skills of the faculty and students to make significant contributions in addressing the
challenges of the developing world. The JGSB forum on Business Solutions for Global Health & Education exemplifies this commitment.

Students from our Technology Commercialization in Developing Markets course have spent the past semester working on creating business plans
for Rice University technologies that have been aimed at addressing global health and educational issues in the developing world. With Africa as
the target, students visited Liberia in order to gather market and field research that could help with the launch of these technologies in Africa and
other developing markets. Students will share their business plans and reflect on their transformative experience in Africa.

Dr. Epstein will provide remarks prior to the student presentations about his two new books, Pharmacy on a Bicycle: Innovative Solutions for Global
Health and Poverty and Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: A Guide for Nonprofits, Companies, and Impact Investors.

Featured Technologies

IV DRIP
DRIP is a simple, easy-to-use IV regulator that addresses the needs of developing-world clinicians. The durable, all-metal device requires no electricity and is completely automatic. The device is an intuitive system consisting of a physician’s scale and enclosed spring clamping mechanism. The volume dispensed is controlled by moving a counterweight along a lever arm; when the target volume of fluid has been delivered, the scale tips and strikes the spring clamp. This clamp pinches the IV tubing, effectively stopping fluid flow. A sliding ruler-like mechanism displays the volume targeted by the clinician.

Presented by:

Erica Skerrett

Kamal Shah

Eduardo Garza

Nick Ong

Wendy Fong

SAPHE Pad
The SAPHE Pad uniformly absorbs blood loss in an easy-to-understand pattern. The pad is rectangular and divided into a staggered grid of 3-inch squares. Each square in the grid contains a fixed amount of super absorbent polymer (SAP, also used in diapers), which will absorb 50 mL of blood. Between delivering her baby and delivering the placenta, the mother will lie or sit on the pad, so that the blood lost will be collected on the pad. The practitioner will count the saturated squares and partially-saturated squares to estimate the total volume of blood loss.

Presented by:

Sanju Patel

Alitta Boechler

Tim Aramil

Elaine Phillips

ASAP Blood Pressure Monitor
Periodic, or ambulatory, blood pressure (BP) monitoring is difficult for health care providers in the developing world due to high patient volume and lack of trained staff. Further, current electronic BP monitoring devices that would alleviate this burden are cost-prohibitive and difficult to run and maintain in the long term. Given this challenge, our team of bioengineering senior design students will improve upon existing products to create an inexpensive, self-powered, ambulatory BP monitoring device that is easily employed and maintained. This device will feature an auditory and visual alarm, custom monitoring and vital ranges, and rechargeable solar batteries.

Presented by:

Melody Tan

Jennifer Richards

Catherine Allen

Ope Amosu

mobileSpiro mobileHaler
The Rice SmartInhaler is an electronic monitoring attachment for Metered Dose Inhalers (MDIs) that automatically, unobtrusively and reliably measures medication adherence. The attachment records the date, time, location of dosage and picture of the patient during dosage delivery. The SmartInhaler, powered by a rechargeable Li-ion battery, is ultra low power and has a battery life of almost 3 years.

Presented by:

Diana Hua

Amol Rajmane

Eldar Guliyev

Krishna Desai

Nathan Pope

IQ Slate
IQ-Slate is an end-to-end affordable learning solution using digital content like textbooks, interactive videos, presentations and pdfs. The solution leverages the use of tablets to improve student engagement,
teacher productivity, personalized learning and effective enhancement in performance and results. Its various modes like Self Learn, Workbook, Read and Networking mode provides various unique features for children to enhance productivity.